INTRODUCTION

Article 24, paragraph 3 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, of
20 Nov. 1989, stipulates:

States Parties shall take all effective and appropriate measures with
a view to abolishing traditional practices prejudicial to the health of
children1.

In 1984, the President of the Inter-African Committee stated:

An erroneous idea of Religion has played a key role in maintaining
the practice of excision and other practices which tend to relegate the
woman to a lower status in relation to the man 2.

In April 1987, the Vice-President of the Inter-African Committee reiterated:

I request more aggressive tactics to put an end to the practice of
infibulation. I call for more active support especially from the religious
leaders of Islam after it has been confirmed many times that this practice
is contrary to the precept of Islam 3.

In this Committee's opinion, religion and Muslim religious leaders play
an important role in the matter of female circumcision. The goal of this
study is to define this role in male circumcision as well as in female
circumcision. We shall on purpose avoid any use of the word Islam, as too
abstract a notion, and we shall concentrate on the written sources of Muslim
law and the opinions of contemporary Arab authors, mostly of Egyptian origin.

CHAPTER
I. DEFINITIONS AND DISTINCTIONS

I. TERMINOLOGY

The English language uses different terms to designate sexual mutilations.
Generally, one speaks of circumcision for boys, and of circumcision, excision
or infibulation (depending of the case) for girls. In this study, we shall
use the terms male circumcision and female circumcision 4.

The legal Arabic jargon uses the word khitan for male circumcision and
the term khafd or khifad for female circumcision. But the everyday language
uses the term khitan for both mutilations. There is also taharah, meaning
purification, these mutilations being said to be purificatory to their
victims 5.

II. MALE
AND FEMALE CIRCUMCISION

Female circumcision has triggered a passionate public debate in the West.
Many national, non governmental, and international organizations are showing
their concern 6. This debate has found somewhat of an
echo in the Arab world. The feminist circles demand its abolition, while
at the same time, the Muslim religious circles try as often as they can
to justify female circumcision, only in the form called sunnah, which is
said to be the one conforming to the tradition of Mohammed 7.
But the Arabic juridical literature shows very little interest for this
issue 8. The Arabic medical profession does not seem to
be much interested either: constituted of a majority of men, its responsibility
is to perpetuate social and moral values which are predominant in its society,
thus blindfolding its members 9.

Contrary to female circumcision, male circumcision does not really interest
anyone10. The debate on the topic is still
taboo. This attitude can be observed in the previously mentioned article
24, paragraph 3 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In spite
of a general wording, the preparatory studies prove that its authors had
only female circumcision in mind and not male circumcision at all 11.

The distinction made between male circumcision and female circumcision
might be justified for medical and cultural reasons. According to Wedad
Zenie-Ziegler, an Egyptian woman:

There is no similarity between male circumcision, a prophylactic measure
recommended for boys in almost every society and female circumcision, the
goal of which is to diminish, if not suppress sexual desire in women 12.
During the UN Seminar in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), the majority of participants
agreed that the justifications of female circumcision based on cosmogony
and those based on religion "must be assimilated to superstition and denounced
as such" since "neither the Bible, nor the Koran recommend that women be
excised". They recommend ensuring that, in the minds of people, male circumcision
and female circumcision be dissociated, the former as a procedure for hygienic
purposes, the latter, excision, as a serious form of assault on the women's
physical integrity 13. This reasoning is groundless and
extremely dangerous. If female circumcision was in the Bible or the Koran,
would it be allowed no matter what? And if one decided to put into practice
everything that is said in the Bible and the Koran, starting with the law
of retaliation?!

Another opinion came from Ghita El-Khayat-Bennai, a Moroccan woman:

Women are not alone in being subjected to sexual mutilations. Every
Jew all over the world for example is circumcised on the 7th day without
much concern on the part of his parents. They keep circumcising their male
offspring, even knowing this to be an extremely traumatic event, preferring
to subject the little boy to pain rather than face their own fear and cultural
taboos as adults 14.

Genevieve Giudicelli-Delage writes:

No doubt the consequences are of lesser importance in male circumcision
than they are in female excision (although some practices of minimal excision
could be seen as identical to male circumcision). But nevertheless, to
take a position in view of consequences alone would be a mistake. Custom
justifies the most serious actions, even death: the essential here is not
action, but culture. If a family from Mali may in France have a son circumcised,
but may not have a daughter excised, it is because male circumcision belongs
to a cultural order which is more or less ours, male circumcision belongs
to this Judeo-Christian ideology which is the melting pot of our culture
and this ideology does not know excision and never did15.

For Doctor Gerard Zwang, the reason for making a distinction between the
two types of circumcision is simple: most sexologists and most men in charge
of information about it are circumcised [Jews]. They oppose any debate
on the subject of male circumcision16.

Juridical logic cannot acknowledge the distinction between male and female
circumcision, both being the mutilation of healthy organs and consequently
damaging the physical integrity of the child, whatever the religious
motivations lying underneath17.

III. PRACTICE OF
MALE AND FEMALE CIRCUMCISION

Male circumcision is practiced by all Muslims and Jews and also by some
Christians, as is the case for Christians in Egypt. It is also practiced
by animist tribes in Africa.

As for female circumcision, it is neither practiced by all Muslims,
nor by all Arabs. In fact, many if not most of the Maghreb countries as
well as Turkey and Iran ignore this custom 18. On the
other hand, one can find it among the Egyptian Christians19
and the Ethiopian Jews (Falachas) 20 who in all probability
keep practicing it in Israel today, as do Africans living in France. Sudan
(98%), Somalia (98%) and Egypt (75%) are among the largest Arabic countries
practicing it. In Egypt, 97.5% of uneducated families impose circumcision
upon their daughters compared to 66.2% of educated families 21.
Other Arabic countries practice it too: Yemen, the United Emirates, Bahrain,
Qatar, Oman, some areas of Saudi Arabia, Mauritania. It appears to be done
also in some Muslim countries of Asia such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan
and India under the name of sunnah circumcision, here with a reference
to religion. But precise data on the subject are not available. In Africa,
28 countries appear to practice it, among them many animist tribes. It
seems to affect about 75 million women 22.

Often, male or female circumcision is performed without anaesthesia
in a barbaric manner, by persons without any medical training, such as
barbers or midwives, using rudimentary instruments causing complications
sometimes leading to death. We have many tragic testimonies on female circumcision
but none on male circumcision as obviously nobody is interested. Still
today, I can recall my youth and hear the screams coming from my young
Muslim neighbours while they were being circumcised. Let us quote here
the briefest and least shocking of the women's testimony, that of Samia,
a Muslim girl born in a small Egyptian village close to the Sudanese border,
who now lives in Cairo:

I was seven years old when I was excised. I recall the stories from
women of my village who spoke of this operation as if their whole life
had stopped there and then. The atrocity of their descriptions and at the
same time a feeling of inescapable doom had triggered such a panic in me
that when the terror-laden day came, I began to vomit. What happened then
is still excruciatingly burning my flesh, so much so that I often wake
up in the middle of the night screaming and calling for my mother 23.

Generally the victim is mutilated without anaesthesia, lying on her back,
legs kept wide apart by helpers or by one only lying under the young girl,
her ankles being hooked in the helper's feet. To immobilize a 7 years old,
you sometimes need the help of 5 persons to restrain her head, arms and
legs. When the girl is a toddler, one assistant alone can manage body and
thighs at the same time, while holding her in a sitting position.
There are many different kinds of male circumcisions: The circumcision
per se consisting of total or partial excision of the foreskin; phallectomy;
castration; emasculation. Only the first kind is of interest to us due
to its frequency and its ritual characteristics. The other three seem to
be less common and we do not have enough information on them 24.

There are as well many different kinds of female circumcision:

The female circumcision called
sunnah or according to the tradition of Mohammed. The religious circles
in favour of this type of female circumcision do not always give details
on what is done. According to a classical author, Al-Mawardi, "it is limited
to cutting off the skin in the shape of a kernel located above the genitalia.
One must cut the protruding epidermis without performing a complete ablation"
25. For Doctor Hamid Al-Ghawabi, it is the ablation of
the clitoris as well as labia minora 26. According to
Doctor Mahran, the hood of the clitoris is excised as well as the most
important parts of the labia minora 27.

Clitoridectomy or excision.
It consists of the ablation of the clitoris as well as labia minora. It
is the operation of choice in Egypt.

Infibulation or pharaonic circumcision.
It is practiced in Sudan and Somalia and involves the complete ablation
of clitoris, labia minora and part of labia majora. The two sides of the
vulva are then sewn together with silk or catgut stitches (Sudan) or with
thorns (Somalia) in order to close the vulva, except a very small opening
for the passage of urine and menstrual flow 28. On the
wedding night, the groom will have to open his bride, more often than not
with a double edged dagger. In some tribes, the woman is sewn back each
time her husband goes travelling and is opened again each time he comes
back. In case of divorce, the woman is sewn up to forbid her any possibility
of intercourse 29.

Let us mention that in the West, female circumcision and especially
infibulation were performed in the past. One of those chastity belts was
made by passing rings in the labia and vulva, wiring them shut or closing
them with a lock, the key of which was kept by the husband especially when
going away 30. In Russia, the Skopotzy (circumcisers)
who are Christians, have practiced infibulation to insure perpetual virginity:
they call upon Matthew 19:12: "... and there be eunuchs, which have made
themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake" 31.
A particular type of female circumcision practiced by the Kikuyu tribes
in Kenya is said to be performed today in some of the hospitals in Paris
to accentuate the pleasure potential in some women of the upper class of
society. The clitoris is disengaged and pulled back inside the vagina.
Such a practice is said to add to women's sexual pleasure 32.

Footnotes:

1 This Convention came into effect on September 2, 1990. 2 Rapport sur les pratiques traditionnelles , Dakar, 1984,
p. 85. The full name of this specific committee: Comit, inter-africain
sur les pratiques traditionnelles ayant effet sur la sant, des femmes
et des enfants .In 1984, its denomination was: Groupe de travail ONG
sur les pratiques traditionnelles ayant effet sur la sant, des femmes
et des enfants..
3 Rapport sur les pratiques traditionnelles
, Addis Abeba, 1987, p. 77. 4 The term female circumcision is used by the WHO (World Health
Organization). Its "position relative to female circumcision" was
submitted in June 1982 to the United Nations Sub-Committee for Prevention
of Discrimination against and Protection of Minorities, Workshop on
Slavery. At the Conference on Traditional Practices, Addis Abeba,
1990, the delegates considered that the terms "female circumcision
and excision could lead to confusion and possibly could not fully
describe the different methods used for the practice". They recommended
that they be replaced by female genital mutilations (Report on Traditional
Practices, Addis Abeba, 1990, p.8). 5 Amin, Ahmad: Qamus al-'adat wal-taqalid wal-ta'abir
al-masriyyah, Maktabat al-nahdah al-masriyyah, Cairo, 1992, p. 188.
6 Here are the most important organizations:

Sentinelles, 10 chemin du Languedoc, Lausanne, Switzerland,
Tel. (021) 6173838. Founded in 1980 by Edmond Kaiser, founder
of Terre des Hommes. This former organization inaugurated a campaign
against female genital mutilations with a press conference held
in Geneva on April 25, 1977. This campaign is being kept alive
by Sentinelles.

I wish to express my gratitude to these organizations for their support
and encouragement in the preparation of this study. 7 One should take note here that neither Rifa'ah Al-Tahtawi
(1801-1873) nor Qassim Amin (1863-1908), two prominent personalities
in the 19th-century fight for women's liberation, ever mentioned the
issue of female circumcision. 8 I have studied many juridical works in Arabic relative
to the penal code and to the protection of the child. Some of those
papers devote a few lines to the phenomenon, drawing a line between
excessive circumcision and minimal circumcision, the latter being
considered a part of the prophetical sunnah (see for example Muhammad,
Muhammad 'Abd-al-Gawwad: Himayat al-umumah wal-tufulah fil-mawathiq
al-duwaliyyah wal-shari'ah al-islamiyyah, Mansha'at al-ma'arif, Alexandria,
1991, pp. 92 and 136-137). As customary in the Arab world, those works
compare public international law to the Muslim law, stating that Muslim
law preceded international documents in regard to the protection of
the child (Ibid, pp. 15 and 251). 9 El-Saadawi, Nawal: The hidden face of Eve, Women in
the Arab World, translated and edited by Sherif Hetata, Zed Press,
London, 1980, p. 36. 10 Let us point out the three following associations
which oppose male (and female) circumcision: